UC-NRLF 


SB    117    D3D 


Complimentary  Banquet 

In  Honor  of 

LUTHER  BURBANK 


. 


»      Given  by  the 

California  State  Board  of  Trade 

at  the 


PALACE  HOTEL 


San  rrancxsco 


Septembe*  J^^S 


C  o 


u 


442375 


/  Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Btt?bank 


o 

President  N.  P.  Chipman,  on  opening,  said:     . 

GENTLEMEN  :  We  are  assembled  here  to-night  to  honor 
a  man  whose  whole  life  from  boyhood  has  been  spent  in 
communion  with  Nature  and  who  has  sought  with  reverent 
spirit  to  fathom  the  laws  related  to  plant  life  which  have 
been  given  to  us  by  the  God  of  Nature.  It  would  there- 
fore seem  appropriate  that  before  proceeding  further  we  in- 
voke the  divine  blessing  upon  the  man,  upon  his  work  and 
upon  those  here  assembled.  I  ask  Rabbi  Voorsanger  to  per- 
form this  office. 

Invocation  by  Rabbi 


Introductory  Remarks  of  President  N.  P.  Chipman. 

-I  feel  much  relieved  by  the  arrangement  that  has  de- 
volved upon  Mr.  Wm.  H.  Mills  the  duties  of  toast-master, 
and  to  make  the  principal  address  in  introducing  our  dis- 
tinguished guest.  I  will,  however,  be  permitted  to  have 
your  attention  for  a  brief  word. 

In  looking  over  the  names  of  the  men  who  have  come 
here  to  lay  at  the  feet  of  Luther  Burbank  their  tribute  of 
appreciation  of  the  great  work  he  has  done,  and  is  still  do- 
ing, to  advance  the  importance  of  horticulture,  I  think  I 
can  assure  him  that  they  represent  the  best  citizenship  of  this 
Commonwealth.  I  see  here  present  residents  of  many 
cities  and  counties  and  of  many  widely  separated  regions 
of  the  State.  High  officials  of  all  the  co-ordinate  depart- 
ments of  our  State  government  are  here ;  heads  of  our  chief 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 


o 

educational  and  other  institutions;  bankers,  merchants,  busi- 
ness men  of  many  occupations;  representatives  of  the  Press, 
artists,  men  from  all  the  learned  professions,  workers  in 
varied  industries;  horticulturists,  gardeners  and  farmers, 
whose  pursuits  have  been  especially  ennobled  and  widened 
by  his  patience  and  genius — in  short,  no  higher  compliment 
could  be  paid  our  guest  in  the  personnel  of  an  assemblage 
than  has  been  paid  him  by  those  who  are  here  to-night  to 
do  him  honor.  They  might  be  more  numerous  but  could 
not  be  more  truly  representative. 

And,  my  friends,  there  is  every  reason  why  this  should 
be  so.  Many  of  Mr.  Burbank's  achievements  have  become 
a  part  of  that  industry  which  has  made  California  famous 
throughout  the  civilized  globe,  and  that  has  taken  and  will 
ever  hold,  first  place  among  the  agricultural  industries  of 
this  great  State. 

When  Horace  Greeley  visited  the  Santa  Clara  Valley  in 
1857,  ne  stated  in  one  of  his  letters  to  the  New  York  Trib- 
une that  "fruit  growing  was  destined  to  become  the  future 
glory  of  California."  Mr.  Greeley  saw  with  unerring 
prevision  that  here  were  climate  and  soil  in  such  happy 
combination,  as  to  give  fruit  growing  a  commercial 
advantage  not  possessed  elsewhere  in  the  United  States.  Mr. 
Burbank  early  in  his  career  discovered  that  he  could  here 
carry  on  his  life  work  in  the  open  field  instead  of  in  the 
conservatory,  and  under  the  protection  of  artificial  heat,  in 
the  rigorous  climate  of  New  England ;  and  so  the  State  be- 
came enriched  by  his  presence  and  his  labors  amongst  us. 

I  must  not  violate  the  proprieties  of  the  occasion  by 
dealing  much  with  statistics.  But  there  are  a  few  figures 
it  would  be  well  to  remember,  for  they  point  the  rapid  evo- 
lution of  horticulture  in  California;  they  also  show  the 

.  2  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Butbank 

o 

fulfillment  of  Mr.  Greeley's  prophecy,  and  if  they  do  not  en- 
tirely account  for  it,  they  show  the  wisdom  displayed  by 
Mr.  Burbank  in  having  become  a  Californian. 

Prior  to  the  opening  of  communication  by  rail  with  the 
East  the  industry  had  no  motive  for  expansion.  So  late  as 
in  1880  we  exported  of  fruit  but  546  carloads  of  ten  tons 
each.  But  in  1890 — ten  years  later — we  sent  out  16,194 
carloads.  In  a  report  which  I  made  to  the  California  State 
Board  of  Trade  for  that  year  it  was  shown  that  the  value 
of  the  fruit  crop,  sent  out  of  the  State  by  rail,  exceeded  that 
of  wheat  and  flour  exports  by  over  half  a  million  dollars. 

This  was  a  startling  revelation  to  the  wheat  growers  of 
the  State  but  the  figures  could  not  be  disputed.  Great  ac- 
tivity in  tree  and  vine  planting  followed  and,  with  greater 
or  less  persistency,  has  been  continued,  and,  to-day,  fruit 
growing  is  the  dominant  industry  related  to  the  soil. 

Sixteen  thousand  carloads  seemed  an  enormous  output, 
and  by  many  it  was  thought  we  had  reached  the  limit  of 
eastern  consumption.  But  mark  what  has  followed.  In 
1904  our  shipments  out  of  the  State,  by  rail  and  by  sea, 
of  the  products  of  the  orchards,  gardens  and  vineyards, 
reached  the  enormous  proportions  of  over  92,000  carloads 
of  ten  tons  each.  Let  me  ask  you  to  carry  home  with  you 
the  concrete  facts  that  76,652  carloads  were  fruit  in  various 
forms;  10,148  carloads  were  wine  and  brandy,  and  5,251 
carloads  were  vegetables. 

You  who  are  engaged  in  other  State  industries 
and  have  had  trouble  to  procure  cars  to  handle 
your  products,  will  understand  the  reason  for  it. 
You  will  understand,  too,  why  the  necessity  for 
moving  the  rapidly  developing  business  of  California 


c 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 


with  her  sister  states,  has  inspired  the  building  of  a  third 
independent  trans-continental  railroad  to  California. 

The  State  Board  of  Trade  was  organized  in  1886  and 
has  ever  since  carried  forward  the  work  of  encouraging  im- 
migration and  promoting  State  development.  In  the  earlier 
period  of  its  work  its  Hall  of  Exhibits,  of  the  industrial 
resources  of  the  State,  was  visited  monthly  by  a  few  hun- 
dred people  from  other  states.  The  number  of  non-residents 
who  now  visit  the  exhibit  exceeds  10,000  each  month.  The 
correspondence  of  the  Board  is  as  wide  as  the  countries 
where  California  is  known — and  this  is  almost  world-wide. 
That  this  organization  has  proven  itself  to  be  one  of  the 
chief  factors  in  State  development  its  records  show  abundant 
and  gratifying  proof.  Our  guest  of  the  night  has  been  for 
many  years  an  honorary  member  and  when  it  was  suggested 
that  this  banquet  be  extended  to  him  and  he  was  requested 
to  give  his  consent,  and  to  address  his  assembled  friends,  he 
wrote  in  reply,  among  other  things:  "I  accept;  but  as  a 
speaker  not  with  complacence,  pride  or  satisfaction.  But 
if  it  is  for  the  benefit  of  the  State  Board  of  the  State  of 
California,  I  submit  with  as  good  grace  as  possible;  but 
depend  upon  it,  my  words  will  be  brief,  and  not  to  the  point." 

The  State  Board  has  from  its  inception  put  forward  the 
fruit  growing  industry  as  one  of  the  principal  attractions 
of  our  State  to  homeseekers.  While  not  neglecting  other 
industries  it  has  looked  upon  fruit  growing  as  the  principal 
industry  related  to  the  soil  which  could  fully  utilize  and 
which  would  also  emphasize  to  the  world  the  advantages 
of  our  unique  climate. 

No  one  can  now  dispute  the  fact  that  the  tide  of  immi- 
gration to  California  was  set  in  motion,  and  has  been  sus- 
tained by  the  climatic  conditions  existing  here;  and  these 

.  4  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Bur  bank 


conditions  were  made  know  by  the  marvelous  range  of 
fruits  grown  here — greater  in  their  variety  and  excellence 
than  can  be  produced  elsewhere  in  any  one  country  of  Eu- 
rope or  in  any  one  or  all  of  the  states  of  the  Union. 

The  orange  and  lemon  have  given  to  Southern  Cali- 
fornia her  wonderful  prosperity  and  prestige.  The  raisin 
grape  has  made  the  Fresno  country  famous  as  well  as  rich. 
The  prune  has  given  to  the  Santa  Clara  Valley  an  enviable 
reputation  on  two  continents. 

These  fruits  alone  have  turned  the  flow  of  many  millions 
of  dollars  to  the  growers  of  California,  that  formerly  went 
from  this  country  to  Europe;  and  experience  has  demon- 
strated that  all  the  commercial  fruits  that  find  a  market 
without  the  State  are  grown  in  all  latitudes  from  Shasta  to 
San  Diego. 

We  have  not  only  captured  from  foreign  competitors 
the  home  market  for  several  of  our  fruit  products,  but  we 
are  successfully  invading  European  countries  with  our  wine 
and  brandy,  our  prunes,  raisins,  and  dried  and  canned  fruits, 
and  canned  vegetables. 

Fruit  growing  like  all  other  industries  has  been  and  will 
continue  to  be  beset  by  discouragements  and  vicissitudes. 
But  it  has  maintained  prominence  among  the  tillers  of  the 
soil  in  the  countries  of  Europe  for  hundreds  of  years,  and  it 
will  always  have  prominence  where  Nature  has  furnished 
conditions  favorable  to  its  pursuit.  In  this  respect  Cali- 
fornia stands  without  a  rival. 

I  offer  no  apology  to  our  guest,  nor  to  you  who  are  here 
to  welcome  him,  for  this  passing  mention  of  the  commer- 
cial aspect  of  the  fruit  growing  industry  and  of  its  influence 
in  upbuilding  the  State.  While  Mr.  Burbank  has  scorned 
to  profit  by  the  many  valuable  contributions  he  has  made 

.  5  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 

P  Q 

to  this  industry,  after  all  is  said  of  his  splendid  achieve- 
ments, they  benefit  mankind  chiefly,  as  they  may  be  made 
subservient  to  the  demands  of  commerce. 

It  would  afford  me  great  pleasure  to  speak  in  some  de- 
tail of  Mr.  Burbank's  unselfish  work  for  the  benefit  of  his 
fellow  man,  and  of  the  consecration  of  his  whole  soul  to 
that  work.  I  should  like  to  tell  you  of  the  many  evidences 
he  has  given  of  his  intense  love  for  the  State  of  his  adop- 
tion. But  these,  and  of  his  high  ideals,  and  of  the  simple 
dignity  and  modesty  of  his  daily  life,  while  the  world  is 
applauding  in  a  way  to  turn  the  heads  of  most  men,  you 
are  to  hear  from  others. 

It  remains  my  pleasing  duty  to  transfer  to  Mr.  Mills 
the  important  office  of  further  introducing  our  honored 
guest  and  conducting  the  remaining  exercises  of  the  evening. 


Upon  being  introduced  as  toast-master  by  General  N.  P. 
Chipman,  Chairman  of  the  evening,  Mr.  W.  H.  Mills,  in 
introducing  the  toast  "The  health  and  success  of  Luther 
Burbank,"  said : 

GENTLEMEN:  It  was  a  Roman  maxim  that  "Men  do 
most  resemble  the  Gods  when  they  create  states."  To  our 
modern  conception  th£  work  of  man  is  most  in  consonance 
with  the  will  of  the  Creator  when  he  augments  the  life- 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 

o~  Q 

bearing  stage  of  the  earth.  To  make  the  earth  more  fruitful 
and  its  bloom  more  radiant  has  been  part  of  the  religious 
life  of  the  honored  guest  of  the  evening. 

We  will  not  attempt  to  recount  the  achievements  of  Mr. 
Burbank.  That  would  be  turning  the  accomplishment  of 
years  into  an  hour-glass.  He  has  done  well  in  the  past.  He 
is  doing  better  now  than  at  any  former  period  of  his  inter- 
esting career,  and  under  the  expanded  opportunities  now 
open  to  him  will  do  his  best  work  hereafter.  We  may  in- 
dulge sentiments  of  gratitude  for  the  past,  joy  for  the  present 
and  hopeful  prophecy  for  the  future.  We  offer  to  him  the 
helpfulness  of  encouragement  and  the  happiness  of  apprecia- 
tion, i 

Wherever  in  the  civilized  world  horticulture  is  practiced 
the  contributions  of  Luther  Burbank  to  the  improvement  of 
familiar  species  and  to  the  origination  of  new  species,  are 
known.  In  the  most  distant  lands  his  name  is  familiar. '  We 
do  him  honor  to-night  not  only  on  behalf  of  California  where 
his  work  should  be  best  known  and  his  personal  worth  most 
highly  appreciated,  but  we  greet  him  in  the  name  of  the 
thousands  throughout  the  civilized  world  who  would  be 
glad  to  join  with  us  in  honoring  him.  We  have  not  awaited 
the  coming  of  the  sad  task  of  writing  epitaphs  and  compos- 
ing testimonials  to  his  life  services  and  his  personal  worth, 
but  are  tendering  to  him  the  commendation  of  "well  done" 
while  his  heart  beats  in  responsive  gratitude  to  this  well- 
deserved  commendation  and  our  happiness  may  be  intensi- 
fied by  the  pleasure  we  are  conferring. 

And  now,  gentlemen,  it  is  my  pleasant  duty,  on  behalf 
of  this  company,  to  propose  the  health  and  success  of  our 
distinguished  fellow  citizen,  Luther  Burbank. 

And  may  we  drink  this  toast  standing? 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 


Response,  Luther  Burbcnk. 

"Mr.  President  and  my  highly  esteemed  but  deluded 
friends — deluded  if  you  expect  Luther  Burbank  to  exhibit 
that  ready  facility  in  handling  the  English  language  which 
these  gentlemen  who  have  been  chosen  to  address  you 
possess: 

"Ever  since  I  came  to  this  curious  world  I  have  steadily 
on  all  occasions,  tried  to  mind  my  own  business  and  especially 
to  escape  publicity,  but  alas,  here  I  am  once  more  dragged 
out  into  the  lime  light.  If  you  came  here  expecting  me  to 
help  on  the  fireworks  you  have  my  sympathy,  but  I  congratu- 
late you  on  the  good  judgment  exhibited  in  your  choice  of  the 
gentlemen  who  have  spoken  and  those  who  are  yet  to  ad- 
dress you.  It  was  a  fine  bit  of  humor  to  place  me  in  the 
midst  of  such  a  galaxy  of  orators,  and  it  must  be  very  amus- 
ing to  you,  but  this  part  of  the  performance  is  no  joke  to 
this  victim  of  untoward  circumstances. 

"I  was  brought  up  in  a  family  like  most  of  you  and  my 
eyes  have  always  been  wide  open  when  something  appeared 
which  promised  to  be  useful  to  myself  or  others.  Among 
other  things  flowers  and  children  never  escape  my  notice,  but 
children  respond  to  ten  thousand  subtle  influences  which  leave 
no  more  impression  on  a  plant  than  they  would  on  a  sphinx. 
You  may  say,  'well,  what  do  you  know  about  children  ?'  Any- 
thing we  love,  we  study,  and  I  have  observed  that  in  search- 
ing for  good  teachers  you  do  not  choose  parents  of  large 
families  on  account  of  their  superior  knowledge  of  children. 
You  generally  select  those  who  have  no  families  of  their  own, 
do  you  not?  Therefore,  as  one  of  the  latter  class,  I  claim 
the  privilege  of  saying  a  wo^d  for  the  helpless  little  victims. 

"Some  time  ago  I  accorded  a  St.  Louis  clergyman  a  five- 

.'8. 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 

Q 

minute  interview,  the  result  of  which  is  that  I  have  been 
plunged  into  the  arena  of  child  culture,  and  fantastic  words 
have  been  put  in  my  mouth  which  were  never  uttered,  espe- 
cially in  placing  environment  so  far  above  heredity.  They 
are  on  the  average  equal,  in  fact,  life  is  a  fluctuating 
balance  between  these  two  lines  of  energy.  Sometimes  one 
holds  the  reins,  sometimes  the  other,  but  both  are  always  in 
action  where  there  is  life. 

"On  this  subject  even  many  alleged  scientists  seem  very 
much  muddled,  and  how  can  those  who  do  not  make  it  a 
special  study  be  expected  to  have  well-defined  ideas  on  it? 

"Biologically  considered,  each  human  being  is  only  an 
outside  expression  of  the  great  tree  of  human  life,  and  what 
I  shall  say  to  you  this  evening  is  in  the  belief  that  any  subject 
is  better  understood  when  seen  from  several  slightly  different 
points  of  view. 

"The  great  questions  at  stake  are,  Which  has  the  more 
influence  in  building  the  life  of  a  child,  heredity  or  environ- 
ment? And,  Are  acquired  characters  inherited?  My  own 
observations  prove  that  all  characters  that  are  inherited  have 
once  been  acquired,  and  that  heredity  is  only  the  sum  of  all 
these  past  environments,  which  if  impressed  on  the  heredity 
long  and  strong  enough  in  any  specific  direction  will  become 
a  part  of  heredity  itself,  and  this  new  heredity,  already 
slightly  changed  by  these  late  environments  will  have  to  meet 
new  environments  as  before,  which  will  by  repetition  become 
fixed  in  the  ever  new  and  constantly  fluctuating  heredity. 

"Did  you  ever  think  what  is  the  most  pliable  and  the 
most  precious  product  of  all  the  ages?  It  is  not  pigs,  mules, 
books  or  locomotives,  cotton  or  corn — but  children.  Children 
cannot  all  be  treated  alike;  each  has  his  or  her  special  in- 
dividuality, which  is  the  most  valuable  of  all  endowments. 

.  9  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 

o 

If  all  were  alike  no  progress  could  be  made,  and  right  here 
comes  the  weakest  point  in  the  present  educational  systems. 

"I  have  long  been  studying  on  the  intricate  complexity  of 
the  action  of  hereditary  and  environmental  forces  on  life, 
both  in  plants  and  in  man  and  these  comparisons  and  deduc- 
tions came  clearly,  sharply  and  naturally. 

"It  has  been  said  that  to  improve  a  child  we  should  be- 
gin with  the  grandparents.  This  is  only  a  half-truth,  which 
perhaps  had  better  never  have  been  said.  Do  not  waste  any 
of  your  time  on  grandparents  unless  you  commence  on  them 
in  earliest  pliable  childhood.  If  we  hope  for  any  improve- 
ment of  the  human  race  we  must  begin  with  the  child,  as  the 
child  responds  more  readily  to  environment  than  any  creature 
in  existence.  The  change  may  come  in  the  first  generation, 
and  it  may  not.  It  may  not  show  at  all  for  many  genera- 
tions, but  patience  and  constant  attention  will  finally  be  re- 
warded in  the  survival  of  the  most  beautiful,  the  most  prec- 
ious or  the  fittest,  whichever  you  may  wish  to  call  it. 

"You  all  know  that  some  great  force  is  necessary  to 
change  the  aspect  of  minerals  and  metals.  Powerful  acids, 
great  heat,  electricity,  mechanical  force  or  some  such  in- 
fluence must  be  brought  to  bear  upon  them.  Less  potent  in- 
fluences will  work  a  complete  change  in  plant  life.  Mild 
heat,  sunshine,  slight  change  in  atmosphere  and  greatly 
diluted  chemicals,  will  all  directly  affect  the  growth-  of  the 
plant  and  the  production  of  fruits  and  flowers.  And  when 
we  come  to  animal  life,  especially  in  man,  we  find  that  the 
force  or  influence  necessary  to  effect  a  transformation  is  ex- 
tremely slight.  This  is  why  environment  plays  such  an  im- 
portant part  in  the  development  of  man. 

"In  child-rearing  environment  is  equally  essential  with 
heredity.  Mind  you,  I  do  not  say  that  heredity  is  of  no  con- 

.  JO  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Bui-bank 


sequence!  It  is  the  great  factor,  and  often  makes  environ- 
ment almost  powerless.  When  certain  hereditary  tendencies 
are  almost  indelibly  ingrained,  environment  will  have  a  hard 
battle  to  effect  a  change  in  the  child,  but  that  a  change  can 
be  wrought  by  the  surroundings  we  all  know.  The  particu- 
lar subject  may  at  first  be  stubborn  against  these  influences, 
but  repeated  application  to  the  same  modifying  forces  in  suc- 
ceeding generations  will  at  last  accomplish  the  desired  object. 

"All  animal  life  is  sensitive  to  environment.  You  can 
change  the  oyster  by  gradually  changing  its  environment,  and 
you  know  the  oyster  is  a  very  low  type  of  life.  Take  an 
ox,  a  horse,  a  dog,  a  man,  and  that  which  often  counts  most 
in  the  development  of  each  is  environment ;  but  of  all  living 
things  the  child  is  the  most  sensitive.  Surroundings  act  upon 
it  as  the  outside  world  acts  upon  the  plate  of  the  camera; 
every  possible  influence  acting  exteriorily  will  leave  its  im- 
press upon  the  child,  and  the  traits  which  it  inherited  will 
be  overcome  to  a  certain  extent,  in  many  cases  being  even 
more  apparent  than  heredity.  The  child  is  like  a  cut  dia- 
mond, its  many  facets  receiving  sharp,  clear  impressions  not 
possible  to  a  pebble,  with  this  difference,  however,  that  the 
changes  wrought  in  the  child  from  the  influences  without, 
become  constitutional  and  ingrained.  A  child  absorbs  en- 
vironment. It  is  the  most  susceptible  thing  in  the  world  to 
influence,  and  if  that  force  be  applied  rightly  and  constantly 
when  the  child  is  in  its  greatest  receptive  condition  the  ef- 
fect will  be  pronounced,  immediate  and  permanent. 

"There  is  no  doubt  that  if  a  child  with  a  vicious  temper 
be  placed  in  an  environment  of  peace  and  quiet  the  temper 
will  change.  Put  a  boy  born  of  gentle  white  parents  among 
Indians  and  he  will  grow  up  like  an  Indian.  Let  the  child 
born  of  criminal  parents  have  a  setting  of  morality  and  de- 

.   II  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 


ceney,  and  the  chances  are  that  he  will  not  grow  into  a 
criminal  but  to  an  upright  man.  I  do  not  say  that  heredity 
will  not  sometimes  assert  itself,  of  course.  When  the  crim- 
inal instinct  crops  out  in  an  individual  it  might  appear  as 
if  environment  were  leveled  to  the  ground,  but  in  succeeding 
generations  the  effect  of  constant  higher  environmnet  will 
not  fail  to  become  fixed. 

"We  in  America  form  a  nation  with  the  bloods  of  half 
the  peoples  of  the  world  within  our  veins.  We  are  more 
crossed  than  any  other  nation  in  the  history  of  the  world,  and 
here  we  meet  exactly  the  same  results  that  are 
always  seen  in  a  much  crossed  race  of  plants;  all 
the  worst  as  well  as  all  the  best  qualities  of  each 
are  brought  out  in  their  fullest  intensities,  and 
right  here  is  where  selective  environment  counts.  All 
the  necessary  crossing  has  been  done,  and  now  comes  the 
work  of  elimination,  the  work  of  refining,  until  we  shall  get 
an  ultimate  product  that  will  be  the  finest  human  race 
which  has  ever  been  known.  It  is  perhaps  this  country  which 
will  produce  that  race.  Many  years  will  pass  before  the 
finished  work  is  attained,  but  it  is  sure  to  come.  The  char- 
acteristics of  the  many  peoples  that  make  up  this  nation  will 
show  in  the  composite  with  many  of  the  evil  characteristics 
removed  and  the  finished  product  will  be  the  race  of  the 
future. 

"In  my  work  with  plants  and  flowers  I  introduce  color 
here,  shape  there,  size  or  perfume,  according  to  the  product 
desired.  In  such  processes  the  teachings  of  nature  are  always 
followed.  Its  great  forces  only  are  employed.  All  that  has 
been  done  for  plants  and  flowers  by  crossing,  nature  has  al- 
ready accomplished  for  the  American  people.  By  the  cross- 
ings of  bloods  strength  has  in  one  instance  been  secured,  in 

.  n  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 


another  intellectuality,  in  still  another  moral  force.  Nature 
alone  could  do  this.  The  work  of  man's  head  and  hand 
has  not  yet  been  summoned  to  prescribe  for  the  development 
of  a  race.  A  preconceived  and  mapped-out  crossing  of  bloods 
has  found  no  place  in  the  making  of  peoples  and  nations.  But 
when  nature  has  already  done  its  duty  and  the  crossing  leaves 
a  product  which  in  the  rough  displays  the  best  human  at- 
tributes, all  that  is  left  to  be  done  falls  to  selective  environ- 
ment. 

"Man  has  by  no  means  reached  the  ultimate.  The  fit- 
test has  not  yet  survived.  In  the  process  of  elimination  the 
weaker  must  fall,  but  the  battle  has  changed  its  base  from 
brute  force  to  mental  integrity.  We  now  have  what  are 
popularly  known  as  five  senses,  but  there  are  men  of  strong 
minds  whose  reasoning  has  rarely  been  at  fault  and  who  are 
coldly  scientific  in  their  methods,  who  attest  to  the  possibility 
of  yet  developing  a  sixth  sense.  Who  is  he  that  can  say  man 
will  not  develop  new  senses  as  evolution  advances?  Psychol- 
ogy is  now  studied  in  the  public  schools  throughout  the  coun- 
try, and  that  study  will  lead  to  a  greater  knowledge  of  these 
subjects.  The  man  of  the  future  age  will  prove  a  somewhat 
different  order  of  being  from  that  of  the  present.  He  will 
look  upon  us  as  we  to-day  look  upon  our  ancestors. 

"Statistics  show  many  things  to  make  us  pause,  but  after 
all  the  proper  point  of  view  is  that  of  the  optimist.  The 
time  will  come  when  insanity  will  be  reduced,  suicides  and 
murders  will  be  fewer  and  man  will  become  a  being  of  fewer 
mental  troubles  and  bodily  ills.  Wherever  you  have  a 
nation  in  which  there  is  no  variation  there  is  comparatively 
little  insanity  or  crime,  or  exalted  morality  or  genius.  Here 
in  America,  where  the  variation  is  greatest,  statistics  show  a 
greater  percentage  of  all  these  variations. 

.  13  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 

O 

"As  time  goes  on  in  its  endless  and  ceaseless  course,  en- 
vironment will  crystallize  the  American  nation.  Its  varying 
elements  will  become  unified  and  the  weeding-out  process  will 
probably  leave  the  finest  human  product  ever  known.  The 
color,  the  perfume,  the  size  and  form  that  are  placed  in 
plants  will  have  their  analogies  in  the  composite,  the  Ameri- 
can of  the  future. 

"And  now,  what  will  hasten  this  development  most  of 
all?  The  proper  rearing  of  children.  Don't  feed  children 
on  maudlin  sentimentalism  or  dogmatic  religion;  give  them 
nature.  Let  their  souls  drink  in  all  that  is  pure  and  sweet. 
Rear  them,  if  possible,  amid  pleasant  surroundings.  If  they 
come  into  the  world  with  souls  groping  in  darkness,  let  them 
see  and  feel  the  light.  Don't  terrify  them  in  early  life  with 
the  fear  of  an  after  world.  There  never  was  a  child  that 
was  made  more  noble  and  good  by  the  fear  of  a  hell.  Let 
nature  teach  them  the  lessons  of  good  and  proper  living 
combined  with  an  abundance  of  well-balanced  nourishment. 
Those  children  will  grow  to  be  the  best  men  and  women.  Put 
the  best  in  them  by  contact  with  the  best  outside.  They  will 
absorb  it  as  a  plant  does  the  sunshine  and  the  dew.  In  clos- 
ing, I  will  give  you  an  appropriate  Burbank  chestnut  and  you 
will  all  notice  that  it  is  a  graft.  An  old  lady  went  to  buy  a 
clock.  The  clerk  elaborated  on  the  many  excellencies  of  one 
of  them  and  ended  by  saying:  'It  will  run  eight  days  without 
winding.'  'Ach!  Gott  in  Himmel!  Eight  days  witout 
vinding.  How  long  vould  it  run  if  it  was  vound  oop  ?'  " 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 


Mr.  Mills: 

GENTLEMEN:  There  is  a  very  marked  appropriateness 
in  this  testimonial  banquet  now  tendered  by  the  California 
State  Board  of  Trade.  For  sixteen  years  it  has  been  the  fixed 
purpose  of  this  organization  to  educate  the  people  of  Califor- 
nia in  the  enlarged  possibilities  of  the  climatic  environment  of 
this  State.  We  are  far  from  having  exploited  the  possibilities 
of  the  soil  and  climate  of  California.  Our  semi-tropical  cli- 
mate, the  fertility  of  our  soils,  and  the  clemency  of  our  sea- 
sons, afford  opportunity  for  the  introduction  here  of  many 
objects  of  culture  which  would  enhance  the  wealth-producing 
capacity  of  our  agricultural  and  horticultural  classes,  and 
confer  an  increased  profit  upon  all  field  culture. 

But  the  field  of  exploration  has  by  no  means  been  ex- 
hausted. The  next  toast  of  the  evening  is:  "The  Agricul- 
tural and  Horticultural  Resources  of  California,"  and  the 
response  has  been  committed  to  the  very  able  hands  of  the 
Governor  of  the  State,  Honorable  George  C.  Pardee. 


Response  by  Governor  Pardee. 

Mr.  Toastmaster  and  Gentlemen'.  The  Governor  of 
California  has  had,  and  will  have,  many  pleasant  duties  to 
perform.  But  none  of  them  has  been  and  none  of  them 
will  be  quite  so  pleasant  as  that  which  he  is  this  evening 
called  upon  to  perform,  viz :  express  the  high  regard  in  which 
this  evening's  honored  guest  is  held  by  the  people  of  this 
State. 

Working  quietly  and  modestly  among  his  trees  and  vines, 

.  15  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 


P  Q 

our  friend  Burbank  has  worked  what,  to  our  lay  minds,  ap- 
pear almost  like  miracles.  He  has  changed  the  characters 
and  appearances  of  fruits  and  flowers,  turned  pigmies  into 
giants,  sweetened  the  bitter  and  the  sour,  transformed  noxious 
weeds  into  valuable  plants,  and  verily  set  the  seal  of  his 
disapproval  upon  much  that  to  him  and  us  seems  wrong  in 
Nature's  handiwork.  For  us  he  has  done  much;  and  to 
him  the  whole  world  is  indebted. 

We  sit  here  to-night  to  render  tribute  to  his  greatness. 
Proud  to  call  him  "citizen  of  California,"  we  marvel  at  the 
skill  with  which  he  has  worked  his  many  miracles.  And 
we  wonder  why  we  did  not  know  of  him  before.  But  genius 
always  struggles  against  a  sea  of  adversity,  and  the  really 
great  must  prove  their  worth  before  it  is  accepted  by  the 
world  at  large.  No  wonder  then  that  California  has  been 
slow  to  realize  that  living  here  within  our  midst  a  genius 
capable  of  playing  tricks  with  Nature  has  been  cajoling 
plums  to  mate  with  apricots,  turning,  better  than  a  lawyer 
can,  the  black  to  white,  even  disarming  the  desert  cacti  of 
the  spines,  which  wise  old  Nature,  thinking  to  protect  and 
save  them,  had  placed  upon  them. 

California  has  much  to  be  proud  of,  much  with  which 
to  conjure.  Our  sun  is  more  genial,  our  winters  and  sum- 
mers more  pleasant,  our  Yosemite  deeper,  our  trees  taller, 
our  women  handsomer,  our  men  braver,  our  acres  more  fer- 
tile than  those  of  any  other  country  in  the  world.  Yet  I 
doubt  if  California  has  been  more  widely  heralded  by  any 
one  of  these  than  it  has  been  by  the  fame  of  him  in  whose 
honor  we  are  met  here  to-night. 

What  will  he  do  for  us  ?  What  has  not  one  of  his  early 
products  done  for  all  the  world  ?  The  starving  poor  of  Ire- 
land have  had  ample  cause  to  bless  the  genius  that  produced 

.  \6  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 

^....  -4 

Q 

so  lowly,  but  so  important  a  thing  as  the  potato  that  bears 
his  name.  What  will  he  do  for  us?  The  cactus  that 
blooms  upon  our  deserts  will,  robbed  of  its  spines,  perhaps 
give  opportunity  for  man  and  beast  to  populate  our  almost 
lifeless  wastes.  What  will  he  do  for  us?  New  fruits,  new 
flowers,  new  trees  seem  to  spring  into  being  obedient  to  his 
Alladin-like  touch.  Do  we  want  a  better  plum,  a  larger 
berry,  a  brighter,  more  fragrant  flower,  we  turn  to  Burbank, 
and  he  gives  it  to  us. 

Hitherto  the  farmer  and  the  horticulturist  have  groped 
in  almost  total  darkness,  taking  now  and  then  some  better 
thing  that  happened  to  fall  within  their  grasp,  but  never 
fully  realizing  how  that  which  they  prized  came  into  being. 
Now,  like  Columbus,  Burbank  has  shown  us  the  way  to  new 
continents,  new  forms  of  life,  new  sources  of  wealth,  and 
we,  following  in  his  footsteps,  will  profit  by  and  from  his 
genius. 

Mr.  Toastmaster,  it  is  a  double  pleasure  for  me  to  be 
here  to-night.  I  am  glad  and  proud,  as  an  individual,  to 
honor  him  whom  I  may  designate  as  "friend,"  and  I  am 
glad  and  proud,  as  Governor  of  California,  and  speaking 
for  the  million  and  three  quarters  of  our  people,  to  bid  the 
evening's  honored  guest  a  hearty  and  a  heartfelt  "God- 
speed" in  all  his  future  work. 


Mr.  Mills: 

GENTLEMEN  : 

"Earth  gave  its  chosen  men  of  strength; 

They  lived,  and  strove,  and  died  for  me 
To  stretch  my  road  a  nation's  length, 
And  toss  the  miles  aside  for  me." 

.  J7  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 

o 

This  is  the  poetic  expression  of  a  very  profound  philos- 
ophy, and  the  poet  Rudyard  Kipling  sought  by  this  means  to 
enforce  the  value  of  citizenship  in  a  great  nation. 

Our  National  Government  has  been  ready  at  all  times 
to  respond  to  this  duty  of  stretching  the  road  of  the  in- 
dividual citizen  "a  nation's  length,"  and  making  the  heights 
of  achievement  easily  accessible.  We  are  honored  by  the 
presence  of  Honorable  George  C.  Perkins,  senior  Senator  of 
California,  and  to  him  has  been  assigned  the  sentiment: 
"What  the  Government  of  the  United  States  has  done  for 
Agriculture  and  Horticulture."  It  affords  me  the  highest 
pleasure  to  introduce  our  able  and  distinguished  fellow-citi- 
zen, Senator  George  C.  Perkins. 


Response,  Senator  Perkins. 

Emerson  has  said:  "If  a  man  can  write  a  better  book, 
preach  a  better  sermon,  or  make  a  better  mousetrap  than 
his  neighbor,  though  he  build  his  house  in  the  woods,  the 
world  will  make  a  beaten  path  to  his  door." 

The  force  of  this  maxim  has  been  truthfully  illustrated 
in  the  life  of  our  distinguished  guest,  for  scholars  and  scien- 
tists not  only  from  our  own  country,  but  from  many  foreign 
lands  have  made  the  pilgrimage  from  afar  to  the  Mecca  of 
Santa  Rosa  to  see  the  cactus  and  rose  bloom  without  brier 
or  thorn,  and  to  taste  delicious  fruits  whose  flavor  has  been 
intensified  by  his  wooing. 

Only  once  do  I  remember  of  our  guest  being  misrepre- 
sented. It  was  in  Philadelphia  when  I  called  at  a  nursery 

.  18  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 

O  Q 

to  procure  some  cuttings  of  the  Burbank  rose.  I  asked  the 
salesman  who  this  man  Burbank  was,  that  had  roses  named 
for  him,  and  who  it  was  said  could  beat  old  Ireland  in 
growing  potatoes.  He  replied  that  Burbank  was  a  French- 
man living  in  the  south  of  France  who  accidently  discov- 
ered the  new  potato  while  endeavoring  to  win  a  prize  of- 
fered by  a  French  association  to  the  one  who  could  grow 
garlic  and  onions  without  the  offensive  odor  and  not  vitiate 
the  flavor  of  the  vegetable.  I  assure  you  I  took  great  pleas- 
ure in  telling  that  nurseryman  that  Mr.  Burbank  was  by 
compulsion  a  Yankee,  born  in  Massachusetts,  but  by  choice 
he  became  a  Californian,  and  his  name  was  the  pride  of 
our  State. 

But  I  am  reminded  I  should  speak  to  the  sentiment  pro- 
posed: "Our  Government  Aid  to  Agriculture"  and  with 
your  permission  I  want  to  say  parenthetically  that  all 
which  relates  to  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  has  a  peculiar 
interest  to  me.  Perhaps  it  is  because  I  have  even  now  a 
vivid  recollection  when  a  barefooted  New  England  boy  how 
it  hurt  to  stub  my  bare  toes  against  the  rolling  stones  in 
the  field  when  planting  corn  and  beans.  Or  it  may  be  be- 
cause later  in  life  I  ploughed  the  ocean,  sowing  not  a  few 
wild  oats  and  harrowing  the  feelings  of  those  who  felt  an  in- 
terest in  my  welfare.  But  I  am  more  than  grateful  that 
the  harvest  I  have  reaped  has  not  all  been  tares. 

As  you  are  aware,  the  Department  of  Agriculture  was 
established  by  an  act  of  Congress  May  15,  1862,  with  a  com- 
missioner of  agriculture  in  charge.  It  did  not  become  an 
executive  department  of  the  government  until  February  9, 
1889,  when  the  secretary  of  agriculture  became  classed  as  a 
cabinet  officer.  Norman  J.  Coleman  of  Missouri,  then  Com- 
missioner, was  commissioned  Secretary  of  Agriculture  Feb- 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 

Q  Q 

ruary  i3th,  and  served  to  March  6,  1889 — twenty-one  days 
— when  President  Harrison,  having  been  inaugurated,  ap- 
pointed Jeremiah  M.  Rusk  of  Wisconsin  Secretary  of  Agri- 
culture. He  was  succeeded  four  years  later  by  J.  Sterling 
Morton,  of  Nebraska,  who  served  during  President  Cleve- 
land's term. 

President  McKinley,  who  was  inaugurated  March  4, 
1897,  appointed  James  Wilson  of  Iowa,  who  has  served  con- 
tinuously since  that  time.  Secretary  Wilson  has  proved  him- 
self to  be  a  most  thorough  and  efficient  public  official.  He 
possesses  in  an  eminent  degree  high  executive  ability,  with  a 
thoroughly  practical  as  well  as  scientific  and  technical 
knowledge  of  every  bureau  in  the  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture. 

The  appropriation  for  the  support  of  the  Agricultural 
Department  has  averaged  during  the  past  three  years  over 
$5,000,000  per  annum,  and  that  of  the  present  fiscal  year, 
which  commenced  July  ist,  amounts  to  $6,692,690.  This 
sum  seems  large,  but  it  has  and  will  continue  to  return  one 
hundred  fold  in  benefits  to  the  people  of  our  country. 

The  Secretary  of  Agriculture  places  the  estimate  of  the 
value  of  the  farm  for  the  year  1904 — after  excluding  the 
value  of  farm  crops  fed  to  live  stock — at  $4,900,000,000; 
three  and  one-half  times  the  value  of  all  minerals  produced 
in  this  country,  including  coal,  iron  ore,  lead,  copper,  gold 
and  silver.  From  year  to  year  the  cultivators  of  the  soil 
have,  aside  from  sustaining  eighty  millions  of  people  in  our 
own  country,  contributed  food  and  raw  materials  for  manu- 
facture to  millions  of  people  in  foreign  countries.  The 
farmer's  balance  of  trade  has  increased  from  year  to  year 
until  in  1903  the  excess  of  exports  of  farm  products  over  the 
imports  amounted  to  the  enormous  sum  of  $422,000,000. 


20  .  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 


Q 

The  Agricultural  Department  of  the  government  in  Wash- 
ington, through  the  Bureau  of  Plant  Industry,  is  co-operating 
with  forty-two  State  experiment  stations  along  different  lines 
suited  to  the  locality,  especially  testing  new  seeds  and  plants 
from  home  and  abroad,  demonstrating  those  which  are  best 
suited  for  the  soil  and  climate  of  any  particular  locality. 

Forty  million  packets  of  miscellaneous  vegetable  and 
flower  seeds  are  annually  distributed  on  orders  from  members 
of  Congress.  Most  excellent  results  have  been  obtained  in 
the  experiments  with,  and  the  distribution  of,  many  of  these 
home-grown  seeds  in  naming  the  class  of  soil  and  climate  in 
which  they  will  thrive  the  best. 

A  special  appropriation  of  $10,000  was  secured  last  year 
for  the  purpose  of  co-operation  with  the  experiment  stations 
in  California  for  determining  the  adaptability  of  various 
grape  stocks  to  the  different  soil  and  climatic  conditions  of 
our  State.  Another  appropriation  was  made  for  the  purpose 
of  investigating  diseases  affecting  plants  on  the  Pacific  Coast, 
particularly  with  reference  to  the  California  vine  diseases  and 
diseases  of  the  sugar  beet,  asparagus,  and  other  vegetables  and 
fruits. 

The  department  sent  to  California  last  year  105  varieties 
of  French  phyloxera  resistant  grape  vines  for  trial  in  in- 
fested vineyards. 

I  do  not  think  it  is  generally  known  how  large  a  number 
of  publications  is  annually  issued  by  the  Department  of  Ag- 
riculture. Last  year  there  were  issued  972  different  publica- 
tions, and  the  total  number  of  copies  of  all  publications  issued 
aggregated  about  12,421,386.  Of  these  publications,  about 
seven  million  were  farmer's  bulletins,  which  treat  upon  al- 
most every  subject-matter  in  which  the  farmer  is  interested : 
agriculture,  horticulture,  viticulture,  forestry,  dairy,  and 

.  .  2*  .  . 


c 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 


a 

stock-raising.  These  bulletins,  together  with  the  Agricultural 
Year  Book,  comprise  an  encyclopedia  of  knowledge  and  in- 
formation relating  to  the  farm  that  is  invaluable. 

There  are  eight  bureaus  under  the  direction  of  the  De- 
partment of  Agriculture,  each  having  several  divisions: 

The  Weather  Bureau. 

Bureau  of  Animal  Industry. 

Bureau  of  Plant  Industry. 

Bureau  of  Chemistry. 

Bureau  of  Soils. 

Bureau  of  Statistics. 

Bureau  of  Entomology. 

Bureau  of  Forestry. 

There  are  also  fifteen  divisions  of  special  investigation, 
such  as  the  botanical,  pomological,  biological  survey,  labora- 
tory, etc.,  with  a  corps  of  educated  and  practical  professors 
in  their  special  lines.  A  number  of  them  are  graduates  of 
the  Leland  Stanford  Jr.  University  and  the  University  of 
California,  which  are  respectively  presided  over  by  the  two 
distinguished  presidents  who  honor  us  with  their  presence  here 
this  evening. 

These  different  bureaus  in  the  Agricultural  Department 
are  quietly  doing  their  splendid  work;  and,  like  smokeless 
powder,  we  do  not  see  where  the  shells  come  from,  but  the 
report  is  felt  on  every  farm  in  the  country.  We  feel  these 
benefits  in  our  forest  reserves,  by  the  preservation  of  our 
forests  and  the  planting  of  trees  on  the  San  Gabriel  and  other 
forest  reserves  in  California ;  we  feel  them  when  we  learn  the 
adaptability  of  certain  soils  to  the  cultivation  of  cereals,  the 
improvement  of  live  stock,  and  their  prevention  from  disease. 
We  feel  the  beneficial  effects  in  the  forecasts  of  the  weather  ; 
the  warnings  given  to  the  farmer  of  the  coming  of  rain,  frost 

.  22  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 

Q 

and  snow,  and  to  the  manner  of  the  approaching  gales  of 
wind.  These  warnings  are  given  from  twenty- four  to  forty- 
eight  hours  in  advance  on  our  Atlantic,  Gulf  and  Pacific 
coasts,  and  have  saved  millions  of  dollars  to  those  engaged  in 
maritime  affairs. 

Through  the  encouragement  and  assistance  of  this  de- 
partment we  now  produce  nearly  all  of  our  sugar  beet  seed, 
which  formerly  was  imported  from  Europe.  California 
produced  last  year  fifty  thousand  pounds  of  sugar  beet  seed. 
American  seed  has  proven  better  than  the  imported;  beets 
testing  as  high  as  twenty-four  per  cent  of  sugar  have  been 
obtained  from  American  beet  seed,  while  the  average  was  fif- 
teen and  eight-tenths,  and  that  of  foreign-grown  seed  did  not 
exceed  twelve  per  cent. 

Irrigation  and  instructions  in  relation  to  the  distribution 
of  water  and  the  amount  needed  to  obtain  the  best  results 
from  different  soils,  has  been  derived  from  actual  experience 
from  irrigated  districts.  There  is  now  in  the  United  States 
an  area  of  ten  million  acres  of  land  under  irrigation,  and  over 
five  million  more  acres  tributary  to  canals  in  process  of  con- 
struction. 

The  work  of  our  distinguished  guest  in  his  field  of  agri- 
cultural development  is  an  additional  incentive  to  our  Gov- 
ernment to  profit  by  his  experience  and  discoveries  in  the  evo- 
lution of  plant  lifes  He  is  doing  more  to  instruct,  interest, 
and  make  popular  the  work  in  the  garden  than  any  man  of  his 
generation.  California  is  proud  of  his  achievements  and  de- 
lights to  class  him  as  one  of  her  most  honored  citizens. 

The  State  Board  of  Trade  esteems  it  a  great  privilege  to 
extend  to  him  this  complimentary  banquet,  although,  know- 
ing his  modesty  and  retiring  disposition,  we  realize  that  he 
would  rather  have  remained  at  his  home  in  the  City  of  Roses, 

.  23  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbanfc 


which  has  become  so  dear  to  him  by  association  with  its  trees 

and  flowers,  for 

"He  wanders  away  and  away 
With  Nature,  dear  old  nurse, 
Who  sings  to  him  night  and  day 
The  rhymes  of  the  universe." 


Mr.  Mills: 

GENTLEMEN  :  It  was  the  intention  to  introduce  the  next 
speaker  without  encomium  and  without  suggestion  of  sub- 
ject, but  with  that  profound  respect  which  the  absence  of 
these  things  implies.  He  has,  however,  chosen  for  himself 
the  toast:  "The  Methods  of  Luther  Burbank  and  Their 
Relation  to  Evolution/' 

I  appreciate  keenly  the  anticipation  of  pleasure  which  has 
filled  the  minds  of  this  company  in  listening  to  the  instruction 
they  are  now  to  receive  at  the  hands  of  Dr.  David  Starr 
Jordan,  President  of  the  Leland  Stanford  Junior  University, 
To  him,  more  than  to  any  other  citizen  of  California,  except 
Judge  W.  W.  Morrow,  we  are  indebted  for  the  endowment 
of  the  work  of  Mr.  Burbank  by  "The  Carnegie  Institution." 


Response  by  President  Jordan: 

Dr.  Jordan  spoke,  in  substance,  as  follows: 
I  am  asked  by  Dr.  Wheeler,  my  colleague  in  the  greater 
University  of  California,  to  express  to  Mr.  Burbank,  jointly 

.  24  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbanfc 


with  my  own,  the  congratulations  of  both  universities.  We 
honor  him  as  a  man  of  our  kind,  the  kind  the  university  de- 
lights to  make ;  the  kind  of  men  who  know  things  and  can  do 
things;  the  kind  of  men  to  whom  Nature  is  an  open  book, 
and  whose  reading  of  this  book  is  clear  and  truthful. 

I  have  come  farther  than  any  one  else  to  this  dinner. 
When,  on  the  22d  of  August,  in  South  Kensington,  I  re- 
ceived Mr.  Briggs'  invitation  to  come  here  to  do  honor  to 
Burbank,  I  packed  my  trunk  at  once  and  sailed  for  San 
Francisco.  I  came  the  very  shortest  way,  by  Londonderry 
in  Ireland  to  Belle  Isle  in  Labrador.  And  on  the  way  I 
heard  of  this  incident: 

On  the  3Oth  day  of  August,  on  the  bleak  coast  of  Labra- 
dor, early  in  the  morning,  a  few  strangers  came  out  of 
their  houses,  houses  they  had  brought  with  them  on  a  ship 
only  a  few  days  before,  and  climbing  to  the  top  of  a  hill, 
pointed  sticks  and  iron  tubes  at  the  sun.  The  natives  said 
these  men  were  fools.  Little  by  little  the  sun  grew  dark, 
the  brown  shades  stole  over  the  hills,  the  light  shrank  to  a 
narrower  rim,  and  then  these  natives  said  they  were  wizards. 
Other  people  who  knew  of  the  eclipse  of  the  sun  and  of  the 
expedition  sent  to  Labrador  to  observe  it,  said  "these  are 
men  of  science." 

Something  like  this  has  been  Mr.  Burbank's  experience. 
Years  ago  in  Massachusetts,  he  crept  around  in  the  mud 
half  a  day  looking  for  the  lone  potato-ball  on  a  plant  with 
which  he  had  been  playing.  It  had  been  torn  off  by  the  foot 
of  a  stray  cow.  People  said  that  he  was  a  fool,  not  knowing 
that  this  one  potato-ball  was  the  fruition  of  years  of  labor. 
It  was  big  with  the  potency  of  the  Burbank  potato.  Later, 
when  a  prosperous  nurseryman,  he  let  go  all  his  business  to 
play  with  scissors  and  pollen  and  microscope,  planting  seeds 

.  25  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 

Q 

and  grafting  bushes,  then  pulling  them  up  and  burning  them 
by  the  thousand,  meanwhile  growing  poorer  every  year,  for 
the  harder  he  worked  the  less  his  financial  returns — then 
people  said  again  he  was  a  fool.  Later,  when  wonderful 
blooms,  gorgeous  roses,  vigorous  walnuts,  and  flowers  and 
fruits  undreamed  of,  sprang  up  at  Santa  RoseV  people  the 
world  over  came  to  see  them  and  him  and  said,  "Burbank 
is  a  wizard." 

But  when  men  of  science,  men  like  De  Vries  and  his 
associates,  came  to  see  Burbank,  they  knew  him 
for  a  man  of  science.  A  man  of  science  is  one  who  takes 
knowledge  seriously;  who,  believing  in  the  truth  of  human 
experience,  trusts  his  life  to  it,  and  has  the  courage  to  use  it 
in  his  business.  All  the  world  knows  Burbank  now,  but  there 
are  two  who  found  him  out  earlier  than  any  one  else,  and 
who  had  faith  in  his  work  and  his  future  before  any  one  else 
had  realized  what  he  was  doing.  These  two  men  are  Judge 
Leib  of  San  Jose  and  Professor  Wickson  of  the  University 
of  California. 

I  am  asked  to  speak  of  Burbank's  relation  to  the  science 
of  organic  evolution,  and  to  the  five  factors  of  evolution — 
heredity,  variation,  environment,  selection  and  isolation,  on 
the  inter-relation  of  which  the  movements  of  life  depend. 

To  understand  his  relation  to  these,  we  must  first  look  at 
Burbank's  method.  It  is  simplicity  itself.  You  can  all  do 
the  same  things  in  your  own  gardens.  First  choose  the  best 
of  the  plants  you  wish  to  develop.  This  is  selection,  the 
"magician's  wand,"  as  Youatt  calls  it,  by  which  the  breeder 
can  summon  up  any  form  of  animal  or  plant  he  may  need 
for  his  use  or  his  pleasure.  Choose  the  best;  destroy  the 
others ;  Nature  will  do  the  rest.  Like  produces  like ;  that  is 
heredity.  But  heredity  can  be  helped  along  by  another  ele- 

.  26  . 


f* 

Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 


r\ 

mcnt,  crossing.  Breed  the  best  with  the  best.  Some  of  the 
progeny  will  have  the  good  qualities  of  both  parents,  some 
the  bad.  If  your  crosses  are  wide  apart  you  may  get  new 
combinations  undreamed  of.  Select  these  again.  Breed  from 
the  best;  ruthlessly  burn  up  the  rest.  A  flower  is  Nature's 
advertising  medium,  calling  the  bees  to  fertilize  her  germ 
cells.  There  were  no  showy  flowers,  flowers  with  petals, 
until  after  there  were  insects,  and  to  please  the  insects  is  the 
flower's  real  purpose.  You  don't  want  the  insects.  You  must 
manage  the  crossing  yourself.  So  snip  off  the  flowers,  keep 
the  bees  away,  and  transfer  the  pollen  to  the  right  place  with 
your  own  dainty  fingers.  This  needs  care,  skill,  patience, 
science — every  virtue  demanded  by  the  finest  art.  And  in  this 
art  no  one  has  been  more  skillful  than  Luther  Burbank. 
Crossing  and  selection,  selection  and  crossing,  this  is  the 
whole  secret,  as  simple  as  any  of  all  the  secrets  of  Nature. 
It  is  her  method  of  evolution.  Arrange  the  conditions  and 
Nature  will  do  the  rest.  But  it  is  one  of  the  finest  of  all 
fine  arts  to  arrange  these  conditions,  to  bring  out  the  results, 
results  all  unseen  before,  but  capable  of  the  exactest  fore- 
cast. 

The  commercial  value  of  Burbank's  work  is  great.  It 
can  be  expressed  only  in  figures  far  beyond  its  actual  cost. 
But  above  all  commercial  values  we  must  place  Burbank's 
contributions  to  human  knowledge. 

Among  other  things,  and  I  can  enumerate  but  very  few, 
Burbank  has  shown  the  plasticity  of  Nature.  Like  produces 
like,  but  not  necessary  that  which  actually  is.  Children  re- 
semble their  parents  in  this  way,  that  they  tend  to  do  like 
things,  to  develop  in  like  ways  under  like  conditions.  Change 
these  conditions  and  all  results  are  changed.  Make  condi- 
tions better,  and  new  structures  and  new  powers  burst  out. 


27 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luthet  Burbank 

O  Q 

The  mutations  of  De  Vries,  in  Burbank's  view,  are  the  reflex 
of  new  conditions. 

Burbank  has  shown  us  that  there  is  no  limit  to  selection. 
Once  started,  variation  can  be  intensified ;  heredity  follows  it, 
and  evolution  of  new  forms  can  be  led  on  and  on  as  far  as  a 
continuous  purpose  may  choose  to  carry  it. 

Crossing  of  varieties  of  one  species,  and  hybridization  of 
distinct  species  are  one  and  the  same  thing.  Most  crosses  are 
fertile,  and  the  results  of  a  skillful  cross  save  years  of  slow 
progress  by  selection.  Crossing  is  to  horticulture  what  punt- 
ing is  to  football. 

Each  group  of  plants  behaves  in  its  own  way.  Each  is  a 
law  unto  itself.  For  this  reason,  as  no  simple,  universal  law, 
like  the  Mendelian  law,  can  be  used  to  cover  every  hypothesis, 
a  thousand  seedling  walnuts,  descended  from  hybrid  parents, 
differ  from  each  other  in  a  thousand  ways — in  every  way 
conceivable  in  which  walnuts  can  differ. 

The  advance  of  flowers,  fruits  and  grains  beyond  the 
primitive  types  is  as  great  as  the  advance  of  palaces  as  com- 
pared with  wigwams ^of  steamships  as  compared  with  dug- 
out canoes.  In  Pliny's  time,  the  pear  was  a  little  rough  fruit, 
not  larger  than  an  olive.  In  future  time,  we  may  go  as  far 
beyond  the  Bartlett  pear  as  that  has  advanced  over  the  crab- 
pear  of  the  age  of  Pliny.  We  are  now  in  the  infancy  of  the 
work  of  producing  domestic  races  of  animals  and  plants.  No 
one  can  forecast  the  possibilities  of  the  future.  And  no  one 
will  do  more  than  Burbank  to  make  them  actual. 


28 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Bttrbanfc 


Mr.  Mills: 

GENTLEMEN  : .  This  banquet  was  given  in  part  to  signal- 
ize the  good  fortune  which  has  lately  attended  the  career  of 
our  distinguished  guest.  The  Carneige  Institution,  founded 
by  an  American  philanthropist,  has  endowed  the  work  of  Mr. 
Burbank  with  one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  payable  in  ten 
equal  annual  installments.  There  is  a  high  sense  in  which 
this  munificence  will  redound  primarily  to  the  benefit  of 
California.  The  species  which  Mr.  Burbank  will  originate 
will  have  their  first  acclimatization  here.  He  will  do  for  this 
State,  aided  by  the  munificence  of  Mr.  Carnegie,  what  the 
State  should  long  ago  have  done  for  itself. 

When  the  snows  of  winter  fall  upon  the  high  summits 
of  the  mountains,  they  are  precipitated  into  the  corrugated 
sides  of  the  lofty  summits,  and  are  congealed  into  glaciers. 
When  the  genial  sunshine,  reinforced  by  the  rains  of  spring- 
time, fall  upon  these  glaciers,  they  make  no  answer  back  to 
the  sun,  but  quietly  disappear.  They  are  melted  into  flow- 
ing streams,  which,  passing  with  torrential  velocity  down  the 
declivity  of  the  mountains,  eventually  emerge  from  the  foot- 
hills and  make  their  way  through  the  summer-crowned  val- 
leys below.  Here  they  summon  into  life  the  verdure,  the 
fruits,  the  flowers  and  the  harvests,  and  this  verdure,  these 
fruits,  these  flowers  and  these  harvests  never  reproach  the 
water  which  calls  them  into  life  and  being  for  having  once 
been  held  in  the  grip  of  winter  at  the  frozen  summits. 

When  the  enterprise,  the  commercial  instinct,  the  business 
capacity  and  the  selfishness,  if  you  will,  of  man  piles  up  for- 
tunes mountain  high,  the  genial  warmth  of  a  philanthropic 
impulse  sometimes  thaws  these  glaciers  and  they  flow  through 
the  channels  of  nobler  achievement,  and  bring  into  being 

.  29  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 

Q  Q 

hospitals  for  the  alleviation  of  pain,  universities  for  the  pro- 
motion of  learning,  institutions  for  the  advancement  of  sci- 
ence, asylums  to  shelter  the  homeless,  and  religious  founda- 
tions for  the  spread  of  enlightenment.  The  beneficiaries  of 
all  this  munificence  may  well  imitate  the  verdure  and  the 
fruits  and  the  flowers  and  the  harvests  of  the  valley  by  not 
upbraiding  the  gold  which  brings  them  into  life  with  the 
reproach  that  it  was  once  a  part  of  a  glacier  of  wealth  at  the 
high  summit  of  financial  achievement. 

The  next  toast  of  the  evening  is:  "The  Carnegie  Insti- 
tution, and  What  It  Has  Done  for  California."  This  toast 
has  been  assigned  to  a  director  of  the  Institution,  Judge  W. 
W.  Morrow  of  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  of  Appeals. 
Judge  Morrow  has  been  called  by  official  duty  to  Portland 
and  Seattle,  but  he  has  left  for  your  edification  a  written 
response  to  the  toast  assigned  to  him.  That  response  will 
now  be  read  by  the  Secretary  and  General  Manager  of  the 
State  Board  of  Trade,  Mr.  Arthur  R.  Briggs. 


Response,  redding  of  paper  of  Judge  W.  W .  Morrow. 

Mr.  Arthur  R.  Briggs,  General  Manager  California  State 
Board  of  Trade,  Ferry  Building,  San  Francisco. 

MY  DEAR  SIR:  I  regret  exceedingly  that  I  cannot  be 
present  at  the  banquet  to  be  given  in  honor  of  Mr.  Luther 
Burbank  by  the  California  State  Board  of  Trade  on  the  I4th 
instant.  It  would  afford  me  great  pleasure  to  join  with  the 
Board  of  Trade  and  its  guests  on  that  occasion  in  paying  a 
deserved  tribute  of  respect  to  Mr.  Burbank,  who  has  accom- 
plished so  much  for  the  benefit  of  California,  and  made  the 

.  .  30  .  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 

O 

world  better  for  his  having  lived  in  it.    But  I  am  compelled 

to  attend  sessions  of  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  of  Ap- 
peals during  this  month  at  Portland  and  Seattle,  and  will 
not  return  until  about  the  ist  of  October. 

The  suggestion  that  I  would  be  called  upon,  if  present, 
to  say  something  about  the  Carnegie  Institution,  offers  an 
agreeable  subject  for  discussion;  and  while  the  pleasure  of 
the  occasion  for  me  would  be  to  hear  others,  rather  than  to 
speak  myself,  the  suggestion  enables  me  to  say  in  this  letter 
about  all  that  I  would  say,  if  present. 

Of  course  I  would  like  to  say  something  in  appreciation 
of  the  work  of  my  friend  Mr.  Burbank,  whose  achievements, 
I  understand,  will  be  the  general  theme  of  the  occasion.  If 
he  is  the  benefactor  of  mankind  who  "makes  two  ears  of 
corn  or  two  blades  of  grass  to  grow  upon  a  spot  of  ground 
where  only  one  grew  before,"  what  shall  we  say  of  Burbank, 
who  makes  tons  of  new  varieties  of  vegetation  to  grow  where 
none  grew  before?  The  satire  of  Dean  Swift  upon  the  in- 
significance of  political  service  as  compared  with  the  value  of 
such  a  dominion  over  Nature  is  a  needless  disparagement  of 
political  services  which  the  country  needs  and  must  have,  but 
it  does  not  overestimate  the  importance  of  a  knowledge  of 
Nature  and  Nature's  laws.  Mr.  Burbank  has  done  much, 
and  will  do  more,  if  he  is  permitted  to  carry  his  plans  into 
execution.  But  it  will  be  necessary  now  to  give  him  time, 
and  time  to  himself,  to  enable  him  to  follow  in  plant  life  the 
intricate  paths  of  Nature,  and  interpret  to  the  world  her 
processes  of  evolution. 

Mr.  Carnegie  believes  that  man  is  destined  to  become  an 
absolute  ruler  in  the  kingdom  of  Nature,  and  so  believing, 
he  founded  the  Carnegie  Institution  at  Washington,  to  pro- 
vide and  develop  the  highest  skill  and  most  thorough  appli- 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 

O  Q 

cation  in  original  research  in  Nature's  laboratory.  The  In- 
stitution was  founded  on  January  28,  1902,  with  the  liberal 
endowment  of  ten  millions  of  dollars.  After  a  year  of  in- 
vestigation by  the  savants  of  this  country,  and  consultation 
with  the  learned  men  of  Europe,  the  principal  features  of  the 
Institution  were  declared  to  be,  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Carnegie, 
"the  promotion  of  original  research  as  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant of  all  subjects,  and  the  discovery  of  the  exceptional 
man,  to  enable  him  to  make  his  life  work  that  work  for  which 
he  seems  especially  designed."  It  was  in  the  carrying  out  of 
this  purpose  that  the  Carnegie  Institution  came  into  touch 
with  Mr.  Burbank,  and  proposed  to  assist  him  to  the  fullest 
extent  in  his  investigations,  and  to  publish  and  distribute 
the  results  of  such  investigation. 

The  Trustees  of  the  Carnegie  Institution  are  in  a  measure 
under  Carlylc's  admonition,  to  let  results  speak  for  the  In- 
stitution, and  "forbear  to  babble  of  what  it  is  creating  and 
projecting" ;  and  although  the  Institution  has  only  been  in 
practical  working  operation  for  a  little  over  two  years,  it  has 
already  issued  over  forty  important  scientific  publications,  in- 
cluding contributions  to  nearly  all  branches  of  science.  It 
may  be  interesting  to  know  that  a  very  considerable  part  of 
the  work  of  the  Institution  is  being  carried  on  in  California 
at  this  time.  It  may  be  found  at  our  two  universities  and  at 
the  Lick  Observatory,  solving  minor  problems  in  astronomy, 
bibliography,  engineering,  mathematics,  physics,  and  zoology. 
In  addition  to  investigations  of  this  character,  some  projects 
of  a  broader  scope  are  in  progress.  The  bark  "Galilee"  was 
recently  dispatched  from  this  port  by  the  Carnegie  Institu- 
tion, on  the  preliminary  work  of  a  magnetic  survey  of  the 
Pacific  ocean,  which  for  the  present  will  be  directed  to  that 
part  of  the  ocean  on  the  west  coast  and  east  of  a  direct  line 

.  32  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbanfc 


O  Q 

from  the  Hawaiian  Islands  to  the  Aleutian  Islands,  and  north 
of  a  line  from  the  Hawaiian  Islands  to  the  mainland.  There 
is  also  being  erected  by  the  Institution  a  solar  observatory 
on  Mount  Wilson  in  Southern  California,  where  the  most 
complete  and  powerful  instruments  known  will  be  placed 
in  charge  of  the  most  skilled  astronomers.  The  atmospheric 
conditions  on  Mount  Wilson  are  exceptionally  favorable  for 
solar  observations,  and  it  is  expected  that  many  interesting 
discoveries  regarding  the  sun's  heat  and  composition  will  be 
made,  and  the  field  of  astronomical  research  generally  will 
be  greatly  extended.  In  a  word,  the  Carnegie  Institution 
is  responding  to  the  urgent  demand  for  deeper  and  more  ex- 
tensive scientific  knowledge,  a  demand  which  was  vigorously 
set  forth  recently  in  a  lecture  by  Professor  Lankester,  an 
English  scientist  of  distinction,  at  Oxford,  England.  His 
contention  was  that  the  knowledge  and  control  of  Nature  is 
man's  destiny  and  his  greatest  need,  and  to  accomplish  that 
destiny  is  the  immediate  task  set  before  him.  He  said : 

"We  desire  to  make  the  chief  subject  of  education,  both  in 
school  and  in  college,  a  knowledge  of  Nature  as  set  forth  in 
the  sciences  which  are  spoken  of  as  physics,  chemistry,  geology 
and  biology.  We  think  that  all  education  should  consist  in 
the  first  place  of  this  kind  of  knowledge,  on  account  of  its 
commanding  importance  both  to  the  individual  and  to  the 
community.  We  think  that  every  man  of  even  a  moderate 
amount  of  education  should  have  acquired  a  sufficient  know- 
ledge of  these  subjects  to  enable  him  at  any  rate  to  appreciate 
their  value  and  to  take  an  interest  in  their  progress  and  ap- 
plication to  human  life.  And  we  think,  further,  that  the 
ablest  youth  of  the  country  should  be  encouraged  to  proceed 
to  the  extreme  limit  of  present  knowledge  in  one  or  other 
branch  of  this  knowledge  of  Nature,  so  as  to  become  makers 

.  33  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 

Q 

of  new  knowledge,  and  the  possible  discoverers  of  enduring 

improvements  in  man's  control  of  Nature." 

That  some  part,  if  not  all,  of  the  work  of  the  Carnegie 
Institution  will  produce  far-reaching  results,  cannot  be  ques- 
tioned. It  is  equipping  an  army  of  investigators  for  the 
frontier  of  human  knowledge.  There  will  doubtless  be  some 
failures,  but  the  general  result  will  be  that  man's  dominion 
will  be  extended ;  and  Burbank,  who  is  an  old  soldier  in  this 
army,  will  return  with  much  spoil,  and  additional  honors. 

Very  truly  yours, 

W.  W.  MORROW. 


Mr.  Mills: 

GENTLEMEN  :  The  original  basis  of  the  Commonwealth 
of  California  was  mining  for  the  precious  metals.  The  ag- 
ricultural and  horticultural  value  of  the  State  was  not  even 
suspected,  much  less  understood.  The  climatic  environment 
here  was  unusual.  Portions  of  the  State,  now  the  most  pop- 
ulous, opulent  and  prosperous,  were  relegated  to  the  category 
of  desert. 

The  "dry  season,"  as  we  know  it  now,  which  is  the  only 
winter  we  know,  the  occurrence  of  which  covers  summer 
and  the  early  fall  months,  was  regarded  as  a  destructive 
drought.  Its  high  value  to  horticulture  was  not  even  ap- 
prehended. Mining  was  the  paramount  industry,  a  fact  clear- 
ly disclosed  when  we  read  the  history  of  the  industries  of 
the  State  in  the  light  of  legislation.  To-day,  horticulture  is 
the  paramount  industry,  and  the  art  as  practiced  here  is  dis- 
tinctively the  result  of  the  experience  and  thorough  investi- 

.  34  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Ltithet  Bwrbank 


gation  of  our  own  people.  The  next  toast  of  the  evening 
will  be:  "What  We  Know  About  Horticulture." 

Colonel  John  P.  Irish,  to  whom  the  response  to  this  toast 
has  been  assigned,  has  been  a  citizen  of  the  State  for  more 
than  twenty  years.  From  his  earliest  residence  here  he  has 
given  the  State  the  benefit  of  his  broad  experience,  his  com- 
prehensive observation  and  his  high  intelligence.  He  has 
devoted  his  very  best  energies  to  the  development  of  the  ma- 
terial resources  of  California,  and  being  gifted  with  the  power 
of  statement,  his  expressions  always  illuminate  any  subject 
which  he  treats. 

In  addition  to  the  response  which  he  makes  to  this  toast, 
as  a  Director  of  the  California  State  Board  of  Trade  he 
will  extend  the  congratulations  of  the  Board  to  Mr.  Bur- 
bank. 

I  felicitate  this  company  on  the  address  he  will  deliver, 
and  take  high  pleasure  in  introducing  Colonel  John  P.  Irish. 


Response  by  Colonel  John  P.  Irish. 

The  State  Board  of  Trade  has  for  nearly  twenty  years 
devoted  itself  to  making  known  the  apparent  and  latent  re- 
sources of  California.  In  that  time  the  State  has  achieved  its 
pre-eminence  in  horticulture.  That  industry  here  ranks  with 
the  learned  professions,  requiring  study  and  skill  and  a  close 
scrutiny  of  the  working  of  Nature.  Man  is  mighty,  but  he 
does  not  know  it  all.  A  small  insect,  desiring  a  special  fruit 
for  its  sustenance,  operates  upon  the  limb  of  an  oak  tree, 
and  at  the  point  of  operation  the  fruit  is  produced.  Another 
insect,  requiring  a  different  fruit,  operates  upon  the  same  oak 

.  35  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 


o 

tree  and  the  different  fruit  grows.  These  two  fruits,  and 
the  natural  fruit  of  the  tree,  grow  on  the  same  wood,  rooted 
in  the  same  soil  and  under  the  same  sunshine.  As  these  fruits, 
produced  by  the  insects,  are  not  spontaneously  produced  by 
Nature,  perhaps  there  are  other  insects  that  call  these 
wizards,  and  declare  their  method  to  be  secretive  and  un- 
scientific. 

The  man  who  has  gone  farthest  of  any  into  the  secrets 
of  Nature,  and  has  controlled  and  guided  her  operations  to 
ends  most  at  variance  with  her  spontaneous  results,  and  most 
valuable  to  the  world,  is  the  guest  of  the  State 
Board  of  Trade  to-night.  Mr.  Burbank  has  con- 
ferred upon  California  the  imperishable  honor  of 
association  with  his  name  and  his  work.  That 
work  has  been  prosecuted  by  him  with  a  devotion  that 
admitted  no  thought  of  personal  gain.  The  fame  of  it  has 
gone  forth  to  the  world.  His  life  has  been  so  quiet,  his  ab- 
sorption so  complete,  that  Californians  know  him  only  by  his 
creations  whose  benefits  they  enjoy.  A  gentleman  who  is 
here  tells  me  that  when  in  London,  entertained  hospitably 
by  an  English  gentleman,  his  host  talked  only  of  Luther 
Burbank,  and  the  California!!  was  ashamed  to  admit  that  he 
had  never  met  Mr.  Burbank  and  did  not  know  the  location 
of  his  wonder-working  efforts.  When  he  left  he  asked  his 
host  what  he  could  do  to  repay  his  great  hospitality,  and  the 
Englishman  said:  "Send  me  a  branch  from  one  of  Luther 
Burbank's  plums,  from  his  own  nursery,  that  I  may  graft 
it  on  a  stock  in  my  garden,  and  you  will  more  than  repay  it 
all."  Another  who  is  a  guest  here  tonight  tells  me  that 
when  in  Berlin  last  year,  the  intelligent  Germans  whom  he 
met  talked  only  of  two  men  in  the  United  States — President 
Roosevelt  and  Luther  Burbank. 

.  36  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 

o 

It  is  time  that  Californians  knew  Mr.  Burbank,  and  the 
State  Board  of  Trade  has  made  this  banquet  that  they  may 
meet  him.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  see  here  farmers,  actual  tillers 
of  the  soil,  who  use  the  plow  and  pruning  hook,  from  nine 
counties  in  the  State,  come  to  meet  this  student  and  associate 
of  Nature,  who  has  added  wealth  to  our  fields  and  orchards 
and  beauty  to  our  gardens  and  bowers,  by  guiding  to  perfec- 
tion and  to  new  forms  the  fruit  of  vine  and  tree  and  plant, 
and  even  the  humble  weeds  of  the  commons. 


Mr.  Mills: 

GENTLEMEN  :  We  now  reach  the  last  toast  of  the  even- 
ing. The  work  of  Luther  Burbank  was  called  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  Carnegie  Institution  by  a  horticultural  society 
of  Philadelphia.  It  will  be  a  matter  of  regret  to  this  com- 
pany that  the  initiative  in  this  important  matter  was  not 
taken  by  California.  California  owes  a  debt  of  gratitude  to 
the  Philadelphia  society  which  manifested  this  thoughtful- 
ness. 

It  must  not  be  assumed  from  this  fact,  however,  that 
appreciation  on  the  part  of  the  people  of  the  State  for  the 
work  and  the  personal  worth  of  the  distinguished  guest  of 
the  evening  is  wanting.  The  toast  is  one  which  appeals  to 
State  pride  and  evokes  sentiments  of  State  patriotism. 

The  last  toast  of  the  evening  is:  "Our  Neighbor,"  and  is 
assigned  to  Albert  G.  Burnett,  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court 
of  California  for  the  county  of  Sonoma,  who,  as  a  citizen  of 
Santa  Rosa,  is  a  friend  and  neighbor  of  our  distinguished 
guest. 

I  take  pleasure  in  presenting  Judge  Burnett,  who  will 
address  you. 

.  37  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 

Q 

Response  by  Judge  Burnett. 

My  appearance  in  this  presence  to  respond  to  the  senti- 
ment proposed  is  rather  suggestive  of  some  unenlightened  star 
of  the  eighth  magnitude  feebly  attempting  to  shine  in  the 
midst  of  the  most  splendid  galaxy  of  talent  that  this  State 
has  ever  known. 

One  at  all  familiar  with  our  public  men  and  orators  must 
commend  the  judgment  of  the  committee  in  the  selectfon 
of  the  speakers  best  qualified  to  do  some  measure  of  justice 
to  this  occasion  in  honor  of  the  illustrious  guest  of  the  State 
Board  of  Trade. 

For  the  entertainment  of  a  veritable  king  among  men, 
and  of  those  fortunate  enough  to  be  permitted  to  participate 
at  such  a  feast,  what  better  choice  could  be  made  than 
of  the  able  and  affable  presiding  Justice  of  the  District  Court 
of  Appeals;  of  the  learned  Rabbi  whose  eloquence  and  piety 
are  always  manifest,  whether  addressing  an  audience  of  his 
fellow-men  or  whether  petitioning  the  throne  of  Divine 
Grace;  of  the  versatile  toastmaster  who  knows  everything 
worth  knowing  and  can  tell  it  even  better  than  he  knows; 
of  the  honored  Governor  of  the  State,  of  whose  administra- 
tion we  are  all  proud,  and  who  has  added  to  his  many  ac- 
complishments the  power  of  facile  and  persuasive  speech;  of 
our  senior  United  States  Senator,  who  is  universally  ad- 
mired and  beloved;  of  the  erudite  and  popular  jurist,  who 
presides  with  such  honor  and  dignity  over  the  United  States 
Circuit  Court;  of  the  two  eminent  presidents  of  our  great 
universities,  and  of  our  gallant  naval  officer,  who  is  pro- 
nounced by  competent  critics  to  be  one  of  the  few  really 
great  orators  in  the  world  today. 

.  38  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 

Q 

The  significance  of  this  reflection  is  such  that  were  I 
not  a  resident  of  Santa  Rosa,  the  home  of  Luther  Burbank, 
I  could  not  expect  an  invitation  to  address  you,  nor  would 
I  venture  the  risk  of  introducing  a  discordant  note  into  this 
symphony  of  beautiful  sentiment  and  apt  expression  for  which 
we  must  acknowledge  ourselves  indebted  to  these  gentlemen, 
voicing  as  they  do  the  universal  feeling  of  our  people  towards 
the  greatest  benefactor  of  this  State. 

But,  prompted  by  an  instinct  of  courtesy,  it  is  deemed 
appropriate  by  the  committee  to  have  a  representative  of  his 
home  town  to  indicate,  however  feebly,  the  esteem  for  the 
honored  guest  entertained  by  his  neighbors  and  fellow  citi- 
zens, among  whom  he  has  lived  and  toiled  for  so  many  years, 
performing  quietly  and  effectively  that  work  for  humanity 
which  shall  endure  till  the  end  of  time. 

The  inhabitants  of  our  beautiful  little  city  contemplate 
with  pardonable  pride  the  many  advantages  with  which  we 
have  been  favored  by  a  beneficent  Providence. 

Our  climate  is  unsurpassed,  the  soil  is  wonderfully  pro- 
ductive, the  people  are  prosperous  and  happy.  All  the  con- 
ditions of  life  are  favorable  for  the  comfort  and  welfare  of  a 
thrifty,  intelligent  and  industrious  citizenship.  No  more 
ideal  spot  could  be  selected,  probably,  for  the  home  of  such 
a  man  as  Luther  Burbank. 

But  the  many  attractions  of  the  place,  and  of  the  sur- 
rounding country,  are  for  the  time  forgotten,  as  distinctive 
features,  when  we  consider  the  fact  that  this  wholesome, 
serious,  earnest,  kindly,  loving,  talented  and  enthusiastic  re- 
vealer  of  Nature's  most  valuable  secrets  is  content  to  live 
with  us,  and  thereby  associate  in  the  minds  of  the  intelligent 
people  of  the  world  our  beautiful  little  city  with  the  imper- 
ishable name  of  Luther  Burbank. 

.  39  . 


c 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 


Q 

In  common  with  you  all,  we  admire  Mr.  Burbank,  as  a 
genius  to  whom  the  great  of  the  earth  do  willing  and  gracious 
homage.  The  wise  men,  the  great  philanthropists,  the  suc- 
cessful and  far-seeing  students  of  Nature,  they  to  whom  much 
power  has  been  given  to  learn  of  the  really  valuable  things 
of  life,  and  who  are  willing  to  toil  and  to  sacrifice  for  the 
world's  good,  come  from  the  east  and  from  the  west,  from 
the  north  and  from  the  south,  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  this  great 
apostle  and  prophet  of  beauty  and  happiness. 

They  come  from  the  ends  of  the  earth,  and  count  no 
sacrifice  too  great,  no  journey  too  burdensome,  if  they  may  be 
permitted  to  see  with  their  own  eyes  the  priceless  products 
of  his  untiring  labors,  to  learn  something  of  his  methods  of 
work,  and  to  catch  some  measure  of  his  matchless  inspira- 
tion. 

The  trackless  wastes  of  the  desert,  the  frozen  peaks  of 
the  mountains,  the  innumerable  trials  of  wearisome  journeys 
do  not  abate  the  zeal  of  the  pilgrims  who  gather  at  the  shrine 
of  this  High  Priest  of  Nature's  secrets. 

They  remind  one  of  the  indomitable  resolution  and  heroic 
courage  of  Henry  IV  of  Germany,  manifested  in  his  nerve- 
racking  journey  over  the  Alps  in  the  dead  of  winter  in  that 
memorable  visit  to  the  rocky  fastness  of  Canossa  to  implore 
the  favor  of  the  mighty  Hildebrand. 

They  come  to  see  this  quiet,  unassuming  citizen,  who, 
if  he  were  to  consult  his  own  feelings,  would  rather  emulate 
Democritus,  who  rejoiced  in  the  fact  that  when  he  came  to 
Athens  nobody  there  did  so  much  as  to  take  notice  of  him. 

We  see  in  Mr.  Burbank  the  "noble  ideality"  of  real,  not 
the  "ignoble  realty"  of  spurious  greatness.  This  is  re- 
vealed to  all  who  know  him  well.  As  we  consider  his  work, 
and  as  we  know  the  splendid  character  of  the  citizen  an^ 

.  40  . 


Complimentary  Banquet  to  Luther  Burbank 


neighbor,  we  must  feel  something  of  the  divine  enthusiasm 
and  deep  penetration  of  Emerson  when  he  declared:  "Ah,  rich 
and  various  man !  Thou  palace  of  sight  and  sound,  carrying 
in  thy  senses  the  morning  and  the  night  and  the  unfathomable 
galaxy;  in  thy  brain  the  geometry  of  the  City  of  God;  in 
thy  heart  the  power  of  love  and  the  realms  of  right  and 
wrong." 

The  world  will  always  know  and  do  suitable  honor  to 
the  great  achievements  of  Mr.  Burbank.  Even  now,  no  other 
name  in  the  chosen  field  of  his  activity  stands  higher  upon  the 
roll  of  fame. 

It  is  pleasing  to  reflect  that  the  distinction  which  has  come 
to  him  unsought  has  not  disturbed  the  splendid  equipoise  of 
his  nature.  The  current  of  his  life  flows  on  with  the  same 
serenity,  purity  and  sweetness  that  characterized  his  youth 
and  early  manhood. 

In  the  zenith  of  his  power  and  celebrity,  he  is  still  the 
same  modest,  earnest,  self-sacrificing,  toiling  and  enthusiastic 
lover  of  his  kind,  content  to  do  what  he  can  to  brighten  and 
beautify  the  pathway  of  life,  and  to  bring  more  of  the  sun- 
shine of  comfort  and  happiness  into  the  cottages  of  the  poor 
as  well  as  the  palaces  of  the  rich. 

He  has  done  and  is  doing  his  work  well.  He  believes 
with  Chapin  that  4<man  was  sent  into  the  world  to  be  a 
growing  and  exhaustless  force.  The  world  was  spread  out 
around  him  to  be  seized  and  conquered."  His  is  the  spirit 
of  all  the  great  army  of  real  men  that  achieve  the  welfare 
of  the  world. 


California  State  Board  of  Trade  Bulletin  No.  14 


California  State  Board  of  Trade 

OFFICES  AND  EXHIBIT  HALL 
FERRY  BUILDING 

SAN  FRANCISCO,  CAL. 


OFFICERS 

N.  P*  Chipman President 

J*  S*  Emery Vice-President 

Arthur  R«  Briggs First  Vice-President 

Arthur  R*  Briggs Secretary  and  Manager 

G*  A*  Dennison Assistant  Secretary 

Wells  Fargo  Nevada  National  Bank Treasurer 


DIRECTORS 

N,  P*  Chipman  J«  S.  Emery 

W.  H.  Mills  Geo.  C  Perkins 

E.  W.  Maslin  Arthur  R.  Briggs 

J*  P»  Irish  C.  M.  Wooster 

S*  F.  Booth  William  Haas 

H.  D*  Loveland 


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